Heide Museum of Modern Art is delighted to have opened the much-anticipated Healing Garden within their museum grounds, on Tuesday 23 November 2021. Inspired by Heide founder Sunday Reed’s profound love for her garden and designed by leading landscape architecture studio Openwork, the Healing Garden draws on the curative properties of plants and the ever-growing body of knowledge that positions gardens as a powerful tool for connecting communities, reducing social isolation and providing positive, life-affirming experiences.

The garden has been designed to facilitate healing and restoration for vulnerable communities and will be a vital space for the broader community as we navigate the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Circular in design, the garden draws on the concept of proxemics, which considers the intuitive spatial distances between people in personal and public spaces.

Australia’s newest art museum, Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) officially opens its doors to the public on Saturday 20 November 2021 with nine free exhibitions, four new artwork commissions, and presenting more than 200 artists in a celebration of the area’s rich and diverse culture, people and landscape. Designed by acclaimed Australian architecture firm Denton Corker Marshall and spanning five floors, the new $50 million art museum houses over 4,000 artworks, with over 200 artists represented and 160 Indigenous and First Nations artworks on display, including its nationally recognised ceramics collection and the nation’s most significant collection of South-East Australian Aboriginal art.

Acting as a community and arts and cultural hub for the Greater Shepparton region, the new SAM building houses the Shepparton Art Museum; Shepparton Visitors’ Information Centre; Kaiela Arts, Shepparton’s Aboriginal community arts centre; an outdoor amphitheatre and Art Hill; and cafe and 150-person event space and terrace, all within a 5,300m2 cubic building. Situated in regional Victoria around two hours’ drive north from Melbourne, SAM is located on the lands of the Yorta Yorta peoples, on the shore of Victoria Park Lake, Shepparton.

Carriageworks, one of Australia’s largest multi-arts precincts today announced a dynamic, First Nations-led program to be presented as part of Sydney Festival 2022. The program includes a new large-scale wall assemblage by acclaimed Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens installed in the Carriageworks public space (6-30 January 2022) and the world premiere of a contemporary dance performance by resident company and Australia’s leading Indigenous intercultural dance company Marrugeku (27-29 January 2022). Other headline highlights include major new installations by leading Australian artists Dean Cross and Cherine Fahd.

Northern Beaches Council has today unveiled the inaugural exhibition of the Environmental Art and Design Prize. The exhibition of the 226 finalist works is presented across three arts venues on the Northern Beaches at Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Curl Curl Creative Space, and Mona Vale Pop Up Gallery, from 12 November until 12 December 2021, alongside a public program of talks with finalist artists.
Prize winners will be announced on Thursday 25 November by a judging panel comprised of internationally renowned Australian artist Euan Macleod; artist, designer, and curator Liane Rossler; and CEO and Artistic Director of the Australian Design Centre, Lisa Cahill. The Prize is an inclusive and diverse exhibition that celebrates the vibrancy of the arts and design community within and beyond the Northern Beaches.

Explore Sydney Contemporary, the digital edition of Australasia’s premier art fair, Sydney Contemporary, in partnership with MA Financial Group, has launched featuring approximately 1,700 artworks on a custom dynamic digital platform.

The ten day online fair runs until 21 November and showcases 80+ galleries presenting over 500 artists as well as a program including a series of First Nations artist video portraits, and a keynote panel discussion titled After Shocks: Art, Disruption and Provocation. New works will be released to the platform midway, on 17 November. Artists presenting work on the platform include Dr Christian Thompson AO, whose work titled ‘Double Happiness’, 2021, is pictured here, courtesy the artist and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.

A major new public artwork inspired by the natural movement of water will be installed in Sydney’s CBD this summer by one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Ripples and Droplets, a mural by Maria Fernanda Cardoso, spans the length of one wall of a 36-storey residential tower in the centre of Sydney. Standing 11 stories high and covering 335 square metres, the mural is believed to be the largest public artwork by an Australian artist in the Sydney CBD.
Commissioned by United Development Sydney as part of the Castle Residences mixed development at 116 Bathurst Street by Candalepas Associates, which is scheduled for completion by Hutchinson Builders in early 2022.  Maria Fernanda Cardoso has worked closely with the architect, Angelo Candalepas, since the inception of the project in 2014, and developed the work with public art curator Amanda Sharrad. While the brief has evolved over time, the result is consistent with many of the themes that have guided her practice for decades.

Sydney’s newest public art gallery, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, opens its doors to the public for the first time on Thursday 4 November 2021. The historical 122-year-old building, owned by Woollahra Council, is one of the few surviving mid-19th century harbour foreshore grand mansions and has been transformed into a new gallery, showcasing a year-round program of contemporary art led by Gallery Coordinator Sebastian Goldspink. Overlooking Sydney Harbour in Double Bay and spanning two levels, the Gallery will act as a community hub at the heart of a new cultural precinct, including the 1863 Council Chambers, the picturesque Blackburn Gardens, Murray Rose Pool and Redleaf Beach.

The Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf launches its artistic program with the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize’s 20th anniversary exhibition. To mark the unveiling, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize has today announced Rhonda Sharpe and her work Desert Woman with Mustache, Cooloman and Pretty Clothes as the winner of the main acquisitive award, increased this year to $25,000. Sydney-artist Mechelle Bounpraseuth was awarded the Special Commendation, the 2021 Mayor’s Award has been awarded to Kate Coyne and second time finalist Michael Harrell has been Highly Commended.